The East German economy was in a sorry state and its image in
the Western world was bad. East Germany systematically
renounced all responsibility for Nazi crimes as the
government nationalized property the Nazis had robbed from
the Jews. Meanwhile West Germany tried to scour its
conscience -- or its image -- clean with the soap of
reparations. East Germany, perhaps because of its scant
funds, remained estranged.

On the other hands Jews, and others who called themselves
Jews, managed to climb up the ladders of power in East
Germany, securing key posts in party and state leadership.
Herman Eksen was East Germany's liaison with Arab countries
and terrorist organizations. Markus Wolf, the most wanted man
in the West, a shadowy figure known as "the man with no face"
because Western intelligence organizations had not even been
able to obtain a picture of him, had a Jewish father.

On the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht (November, 1988) a
letter was sent to Eric Honecker, general secretary of the
East German Communist Party and also head of state of East
Germany, demanding that he revoke all of the court rulings
issued against Jews persecuted in East Germany. During this
period Honecker was expending inexhaustible energies to
establish closer ties with the West in general and the US in
particular in order to obtain economic aid to cover the
national deficit. As a result, he hastened to carry out the
request. For similar reasons, top government officials
decided to assist in the rehabilitation of the local Jewish
community. They were convinced that if good relations were
forged with world Jewry, particularly the World Jewish
Congress whose leaders included Edgar Bronfman, it would help
them with oil deals.

A short time later Stasi agent Irena Ronga landed in Israel.
A real Jew born of parents married kedas Moshe
veYisroel in Eretz Hakodesh, she eventually made her way
to East Germany. Now she was using family ties in Eretz
Yisroel to inquire about a suitable rov for the dwindling
Jewish community to try to polish the East German image.
Throughout her search, the Germans stressed the need for an
Orthodox rabbi, for their experience with Reform rabbis had
been very undignified.

The quest seemed bizarre. East Germany was even more
Communist than Russia. Under Honecker, tanks still roamed the
streets. The government did not even permit Jewish marriage,
only civil marriage, and suddenly along comes a demand for an
Orthodox rov?

When Rav Weinman became the leading candidate, he sought the
advice of Maran HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv, shlita.
Before giving his blessings, Maran made an unambiguous
stipulation: "Do not take Shulchan Oruch Even Ha'ezer
with you to Germany." His intention was clear: not to deal
with any matters of personal status.

Although geirus is in Yoreh Dei'oh, it was
certainly included. Rav Weinman says HaRav Eliashiv meant he
should refrain from performing any weddings or divorces! Just
harbotzas Torah and Jewish awareness.

When Rav Weinman arrived in East Germany for the first time,
11 men took part in the tefilloh on Shabbos -- but
there was no minyan, for only nine of them were
halachically Jewish.

In the back row of the shul sat a young man of about
16. Wearing a solemn expression and appearing somewhat
bewildered, he seemed detached from the other congregants.
Nobody went up to him at the end of the tefilloh. They
left slowly, but the young man stayed in his seat, lost in
thought. Rav Weinman approached him and tried to initiate a
conversation in English, but to his surprise the young man
replied in Russian. Finally they spoke in German as a
compromise.

He was the son of a ranking official at the Russian embassy.
His mother was Jewish, he said. His grandmother was too. His
father was a high-ranking diplomat in the Russian Foreign
Service -- essentially the KGB's liaison to the Stasi. In the
past, as is common with career diplomats, they had lived in
various countries.

Unlike other Jews who revealed their Jewish identity during
those years, his family concealed it. Once he had overheard a
conversation between his mother and grandmother indicating
that they were Jewish, but they cautioned him not to tell
anybody. It was not a difficult request to honor since he had
only the vaguest understanding of the word "Jew." The
information remained in the recesses of his memory, surfacing
occasionally to pester him.

Gorbachev's Perestroika had begun. Now that the Communists
had stopped jamming the Voice of America, broadcasts on
Jewish topics had begun to arrive. The young man absorbed
what he heard and internalized it. Books, of course, were
unavailable.

The young man spent a long time in Berlin with his father,
who had been sent by the Russian "big brother" to oversee the
little brother, East Germany. He knew there was a Jewish
community and a synagogue, but he had never gone there. "For
some reason I woke up with a feeling of apprehension this
morning," he told Rav Weinman. "A voice inside me wouldn't
let me rest. It was a strange impulse. This is the first time
in my life I've stepped into a synagogue," he added with
tears in his eyes.

"For the first time in my life I had a chance to see what a
rabbi looks like, a rabbi from Jerusalem. For the first time
in my life I had a chance to hear Kiddush," he said as
he sat down at Rav Weinman's Shabbos table. "This was my
first time hearing Shabbos songs and words of Torah. I feel a
deep need to recite the only blessing I know from the Voice
of America broadcasts: Shehechiyonu vekiyemonu vehigi'onu
lazman hazeh."

Rav Weinman embraced the young man. A tear began to slide
down his young guest's cheek. "And I cried, too," Rav Weinman
recalls. Tears bridging the generations.

The young man was impatient, fearing somebody would notice
his absence, but his legs refused to carry him away. They
arranged to meet again, and their subsequent meeting led to
further contact. Can there be any greater proof that Torah
"lo sishochach mipi zar'o?" Rav Weinman later asked
the few members of the local kehilloh still left.

Their ties grew stronger and they met frequently. Eventually
the young man built a Torah home in Eretz Yisroel.

A Kibbutz in East Germany

Rav Weinman did not move to Germany. When he flew in with his
family to hold a Pesach Seder with the kehilloh, the
Jewish rabbi with his crates of lettuce drew many curious
glances at the Berlin airport. El Al also took part by
allowing him to transport a load of fruits of Eretz Yisroel
shortly before Tu Bishvat for the Jews far away from Eretz
Yisroel -- and even further from its mitzvas -- for
generations. Throughout Rav Weinman's time in East Germany,
he gave shiurim and held heart-to-heart talks with
many people.

The spiritually awakening of East Germany's Jewish community
was acutely felt. Some of them were American Jews who had
emigrated many years before from the land of unlimited
opportunity to the land of impossible limitations. In the
early and middle years of the 20th century, many Jews were
caught up by the ideological promises of Communism. At the
time, McCarthyism held sway in the US. Communists were
persecuted to the point of expulsion.

This was also the period in which Jewish Communists Julius
and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for espionage, following a
controversial trial.

The prosecution tried to force the couple to plead guilty,
which would have incriminated all of the 50,000 members of
the American Communist Party as well as 500,000 sympathizers.
This did not happen. The Rosenbergs remained silent and the
affair ended at Long Island's Bellwood Cemetery.

For decades there was an emotional debate. Were they guilty
or were innocent Communist sympathizers killed because of the
hysteria? In recent years, with the opening of Soviet records
to public inspection, it was found that they were in fact
spies, but it does not seem that they managed to give away
any information that was of real value.

America in those days was still in tumult. The Communists,
many of whom were Jewish, felt hunted. Searching for a safe
haven, many of them went to East Germany. One group started a
kibbutz in their new land. They were Jews by descent, but
totally severed from Jewish tradition.

No Oil to Keep the Flame Burning

Years passed before the first spiritual stirrings became
apparent. A Jewish cultural organization was founded in
Berlin by Jews who wanted to become familiar with Judaism,
primarily from a cultural rather than religious perspective.
But the organization took a turn when Rav Weinman began to
serve in the local rabbinate.

Rav Weinman: "Sometimes you don't know why the hand of
Hashgochoh brought you so far away and under such
unexpected circumstances--until you see the results. One of
the young men who was very interested in the shiurim
drew closer to Yiddishkeit. Eventually, he came to
Eretz Yisroel and studied in the yeshiva in Zichron Yaakov.
Later he went to the US and built a home with one of the
descendants of HaRav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch. After the
wedding, he returned to Eretz Yisroel to resume his Torah
studies and later, at the advice of HaRav Shlomo Wolbe,
became a maggid shiur at the local yeshiva, Beis
Medrash DeBerlin.

"After two years of harbotzas Torah, HaRav Dovid Karen
of Amsterdam told me, he moved there to study at the
kollel in the city, where the Jewish infrastructure is
sufficiently developed to allow a ben Torah to build a
Torah home and raise his children properly. But it all began
with a thirst, a spark that had not been extinguished, with
the shiurei Torah that began with the arrival of the
rov from Jerusalem to a faraway land."

East German Jewry was torn between two opposing forces: a
powerful thirst for Judaism and terrible ignorance. Not much
remained from the region's glorious past. Once, HaRav Ezriel
Hildesheimer's Adas Yisroel had been there, but the
magnificent beis knesses was destroyed. Only the
rabbinical seminary building remained standing, without its
budding rabbonim, teachers and spiritual guides to light the
way.

The Adas Yisroel burial plot remains as it was. Cold
gravestones and a few hearts still burning in Berlin, without
the Jewish oil to keep the flame burning bright.

The modern Jewish community in East Germany defined itself as
Orthodox. They denied both the Reform Movement and the
Conservative Movement a foothold, although they took in those
who had been converted by Liberal (i.e. Reform/Conservative)
rabbis or various chazanim. The acceptance criteria
were bris miloh and knowing all of Bircos HaTorah
by heart. This was how the term "Jew" was defined
according to the local lexicon.

According to the leading poskim, the Jews of East
Germany who knew nothing about Judaism were not considered
apostates (no din mumar). Therefore, Rav Weinman tried
to persuade the heads of the kehilloh to expand the
criteria to include anyone born to a Jewish mother, even if
he had drifted so far from Judaism that he had not been
circumcised or did not know the brochos over the Torah
by heart.

He also demanded they not accept fictitious conversions
performed by unauthorized individuals. Of course, Rav
Weinman, based on Maran HaRav Eliashiv's parting words to
him, did not become involved in conversion himself.

But the heads of the kehilloh held their ground--
bris and Bircas HaTorah. Rav Weinman realized
he had his work cut out for him if he wanted to changed this
entrenched thinking.

With the Head of the Communist Party

The first lecture he gave in East Germany fell on attentive
ears. The lecture was held on Tu Bishvat and dealt with the
mitzvas connected to Eretz Yisroel. Rav Weinman says he was
sent unmistakable siyata deShmaya. His listeners, who
were far from Judaism and in the grip of a Communist
worldview, did not hear only what was said but rather what
was close to their hearts. In every word of the lecture they
heard the concern for every individual, rich or poor, and
concern for laborers. They came back to hear subsequent
lectures, the first step in building a bridge to Judaism.

During Rav Weinman's years as rov of the kehilloh he
met with heads of state on several occasions. He explained
the need for this as follows.

"Once the Jews set out for the golus, gedolei Yisroel
took leadership matters into their hands," says Rav Weinman,
"even what is known today as political leadership. R'
Yochonon Ben Zakai saved the Jews with his request to
Aspasyanus (Vespasian) --`Give me Yavneh and its wise men.'
Ever since then the rabbonim have run Jewish affairs in every
area of life, shaping its character. Only when Jewish life
began to decline on account of Jews who turned their back on
their heritage did a kind of retreat begin. I came to assist
the community, and if necessary one must meet with the
national leaders."

Rav Weinman maintained ties with then-prime minister, Lothar
de Maiziere. Every time he came to East Germany the
government would send a car and bodyguard. But the first
meaningful connection was forged with Communist Party
Secretary George Gizi, who was one of the country's most
powerful leaders.

Gizi's father was a Jew -- the son of a Jewish mother -- who
himself once served as minister of religious affairs. As
minister he saw to the restoration of Jewish property to the
community and maintaining the availability of kosher meat,
bringing a shochet in from Hungary once every two
weeks.

Unfortunately, most of this meat did not reach the Jews, who
did not eat kosher and did not really ask for it. Many Arab
diplomats were staying in Berlin, for at the time Eastern
Europe had close ties with Islamic countries. They insisted
on ritually slaughtered meat and got it, leaving little for
the Jews.

The former Religious Affairs Minister also restored books
that had been confiscated by the government authorities to
Jewish hands. This required a special authorization from
Honecker, the East German ruler.

A Jewish heart beat in the chest of the elder Gizi, who
shared several prolonged, intimate conversations with Rav
Weinman. When he opened the chambers of his heart he returned
to parts of his childhood left far behind, back to his home,
his Jewish mother. He related how his grandmother had
perished in Auschwitz because she was Jewish. He even
stretched his memory back in time to his early childhood,
recalling how he marched off to the home of a
tzaddik.

"What was his name?" Rav Weinman asked.

"I don't remember."

"What blessing did he give you?"

Gizi strained his memory, but this was beyond his
recollection as well. "Perhaps," Rav Weinman suggested, "he
blessed you with a long life to be used to act for the sake
of the Jews. You have done so until now. And I am sure this
is what you will do in the future. But now they are in need
of your help more than ever."

Rav Weinman asked him to arrange for every Jew to receive a
tallis, tefillin and siddur. They also spoke
about the possibility of having kosher bread brought in at
least once a week. But most of all Rav Weinman took advantage
of the ties to reach Gizi's son, the de facto ruler of
the country. A short time later, the two met. Rav Weinman
laid on the table a crystal bowl brimming with fruits from
Eretz Yisroel.

End of Part I

The Heritage of Berlin -- HaRav Ezriel Hildesheimer
zt"l

Today Berlin boasts a real yeshiva. But Berlin was also the
city that sent forth the Enlightenment and the Reform
Movement. Against these malevolent winds stood a man
committed to defending Yiddishkeit against those who
sought to undermine it.

HaRav Ezriel Hildesheimer zt"l, waged a war against
the Reform and Conservative forces, using his mouth and quill
to dispel the darkness. As part of his campaign he founded a
Beis Medrash for Rabbonim (the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary --
Rabbiner Seminar Fur Das Orthodoxe Judenthum). Through
his fight for truth he even won the esteem of his sworn
enemies, but during his lifetime they refused to admit this.
He was a Torah great and a leader involved in the world of
action. Jewish history has known few like him.

Throughout his lifetime, HaRav Hildesheimer fought for total
severance from the destroyers from within. His
kehilloh was disconnected from the general Jewish
community, like HaRav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch's
kehilloh in Frankfurt and the kehillos in
Hungary. At the time of the big split in Hungary, the Maharam
Shick and the Ksav Sofer wrote, "Please remove yourselves
from the tents of these wrongdoers, lest you perish in their
sin. HaRav Ezriel's kehilloh also separated itself
from this evil congregation and formed Kehillas Adas
Yisroel."

HaRav Ezriel fought an unswerving battle. "Peace without
truth is defeatism and capitulation," he said. When the
Reform Movement cast its schemes as efforts toward internal
peace within the Jewish community and declared, "Peace now,"
HaRav Ezriel insisted, "Truth now."

At a gathering in Germany to discuss antisemitism, for
instance, the Liberal rabbis proposed various concessions
regarding non-Jews. HaRav Ezriel objected to this
unyieldingly. "I don't understand HaRav Ezriel," said
Maybaum, one of the leaders of Liberal Judaism. "Three times
a day he says, `Oseh sholom bimromov, Hu yaaseh sholom
oleinu,' and now he is almost the only one to object to
the proposal."

HaRav Ezriel said that his claim contains an intrinsic
contradiction. "True, I say this. But immediately afterwards
I take three steps back," -- meaning peace does not always
bring positive progress.

Peace, he once said in a droshoh on Parshas Pinchos,
is crucial. But only peace coupled with truth, and there is
no truth without Torah. In a life of falsehood, peace is
surrender and defeatism. Beis Shamai and Beis Hillel loved to
carry out the precept, `Ho'emes vehasholom ehovu.'
Peace linked with truth, subject to it, after achieving it .
. . "

HaRav Ezriel waged his war within the camp as well. When one
of his talmidim who served as rov of a large
kehilloh went off track, HaRav Ezriel came out against
him in an opinion statement in the newspaper
Israelite. The next day, the talmid arrived at
the home of his esteemed rov. He fell to the ground and burst
out in bitter tears, saying he had never cried like that his
whole life.

HaRav Ezriel Hildesheimer studied at the yeshiva of the Oruch
LaNer. He was a multidimensional figure, a Torah great
closely involved in day-to-day affairs. Sulam mutzav
artzoh verosho magi'a hashomayimoh. A rov and a fighter.
A posek and an educator. A man of letters and a gifted
writer. A godol beTorah and an askan whose net
spread far and wide.

Assimilated Berlin provided him plenty of fertile ground. The
Reform Movement encompassed all of urban German Jewry. It was
not that strong in the small towns. When he was a university
student, 90 percent of his Jewish peers were severed from the
Jewish religion. Some of them converted, others remained
without religion. Those who remained, known as "Israelites,"
were affiliated with Reform synagogues. They stayed in the
Jewish camp for only one purpose: to wage battle against the
Jewish tradition. The door of HaRav Ezriel's dorm room bore
an inscription in chalk: "Ve'od boh asirei'oh" ("And
if one tenth remains in it . . . ").

While still a boy HaRav Ezriel already saw the world with the
eyes of a godol beTorah. Recalling his childhood years
during a droshoh, he once said, "Darkness and fog
covered the nation in which I was born and in which I became
a man. The ruffians of the generation, the deniers of the
Torah, were out in the open and luck was with them. And
yirei Hashem went around with heads bowed low before
the haters of the nation, who called for the glory of the
Torah to be lowered to the ground and whose only aim was to
cut down the Torah and mitzvas from their foundations.

"I left my father's home while I was still a young boy.
Hashem alone was my Stronghold, my Guide and my Supporter.
Until I recalled a cherished prophecy that comforted me, the
promise, `And if one tenth remains in it then that will
again be consumed, but like a terebinth and like an oak whose
stump remains when they shed their leaves, so the holy seed
is its immovable stump'" (Yeshayohu 6:13).

One of HaRav Ezriel's major weapons was his Beis Medrash for
Rabbonim. His goal was to produce Orthodox rabbonim who could
compete with the Reform rabbis in the fight over the hearts
of the masses drifting ever further away. This was the call
of the hour and HaRav Ezriel sensed the call beckoning him,
as revealed in a letter he sent to HaRav Michel of
Magentza.

In a written plea to support Yeshivas Eisenstadt he referred
to the secular studies taught there as "stratagems in the
war, that are needed to sanctify the Name of Heaven."
Elsewhere he wrote, "Integrating general studies appears
indispensable in order to maintain and run the
kehillos in accordance with the present
circumstances." In all of the letters of advice he sent to
his talmidim, whenever he mentioned general studies he
would refer to them as "subjects necessary at the present
time."

Gedolei Yisroel saw HaRav Ezriel's approach in the
context of his particular time and place as the salvation of
German Jewry. They respected him and accorded him great
honor. Thus the Maharam Shick and HaRav Yehuda Assad sent
their sons to study at HaRav Ezriel's yeshiva.

HaRav Ezriel had a particularly close relationship with HaRav
Yisroel Salanter. On several occasions, R' Yisroel came to
visit at Kehillas Adas Yisroel thanks to his tight bond with
their rov. HaRav Salanter closely monitored the activities of
the rov he held in such high esteem. During one of his visits
he even listened to a shiur HaRav Ezriel gave to the
upper class, recording his impressions in a single sentence:
"I envy HaRav Ezriel's portion in the World to Come in the
merit of this teaching." In a letter he wrote, "Beis
Hamedrash Lerabbonim, which belongs to Kvod Toraso, is
a great act up in the Heavens for the strengthening of Torah
and horo'oh."

We also find a warm recommendation for the Beis Medrash by
Maran HaRav Yitzchok Elchonon Spector, with whom HaRav Ezriel
also maintained close ties. In his letter to the "noble Jews"
of Russia, he wrote about "the great, righteous and
upstanding rabbis in German lands who are fighting back in
the turbulent war against the Reform Movement, which has led
to the abandonment and desolation of the Torah halls of
Germany . . . and the last of them, who has done great deeds,
is my dear friend, HaGaon Hagodol Umefursam Moreinu HaRav
Ezriel Hildesheimer."

The great admiration among the Lithuanian gedolei
Torah continued even after his passing. In a letter to his
son HaRav Meir Hildesheimer dated 5694 (1934), HaRav Chaim
Ozer Grodzensky referred to the Beis Medrash Lerabbonim as a
"fabulous institution" and an "important institution."

Those associated with the beis medrash included HaRav
Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman (the Ponovezher Rav) who would
daven there during his visits to Berlin. HaRav Dovid
Tzvi Hoffman was head for a period. Based on HaRav Hoffman's
recommendation, HaRav Avrohom Eliyohu Kaplan was sent to
replace him as head of the beis medrash. Following
this appointment, gedolei Yisroel began to visit the
beis medrash constantly.

A letter from the Chofetz Chaim to HaRav Kaplan reads, "My
heart was joyous upon hearing that Germany has begun to bring
forth roses as in the days of yore when it was a place of
lodging for Torah."

Gedolei Yisroel also held HaRav Ezriel himself in high
regard. In 5644 (1884) he paid a visit to the town of Brisk.
The Beis Halevy gave him the honor of delivering a
droshoh to the kehilloh. Writing a letter to
HaRav Ezriel on the first day of Selichos that year, the Beis
Halevy addressed it to "HaRav HaGaon Hamefursom Tzaddik
Yesod Olom" and wrote, "I have heard about your
reputation and [when] you were recently in kehilloh Kedoshoh
Brisk and we saw one another you exceeded your reputation and
I thought I would come to you bearing blessings . . . May
[you], the brave tzaddik, continue your good deeds for
the benefit of others as you have done until now." The letter
also contains a terutz to the kushiyoh HaRav
Ezriel had laid forth during their meeting.

HaRav Ezriel was also close to the Chasam Sofer's son, the
Ksav Sofer, and to his brother, HaRav Shimon. The Ksav Sofer
even offered to have HaRav Hildesheimer join him as a second
rov in Pressburg and to serve as rosh yeshiva.

Years later, when his chiddushim on Yevomos and
Kesuvos saw print, Maran HaRav Shach wrote in his
approbation, "Moreinu HaRav Ezriel, ztvk"l, who lived
two generations ago, had a great reputation for his
activities." Maran HaRav Moshe Feinstein wrote, "And he was
famous among the gedolei olom of his generation over
one hundred years ago." Maran HaRav Eliashiv, ylct"a,
wrote that HaRav Hildesheimer "was known in his generation,
which was well before ours, as a gaon and
tzaddik."

When his chiddushim on maseches Brochos and
Seder Mo'ed were published HaRav Aharon Leib Steinman
wrote, "I am not in the least worthy of giving such an
approbation, but this book that was written by a genius from
several generations ago and who was considered one of the
gedolim of his generation, does not need diminutive
people [like me] to speak for him and his book."

HaRav Moshe Shmuel Shapira wrote, "And his greatness is well
known, for the geniuses of the previous generations praised
him and certainly his written work will be accepted in the
beis medrash, and amolei Torah will benefit
from the great light that shone in all of the German
lands."

In his approbation, HaRav Feinstein also writes, "His
greatness was agreed upon by the geniuses of the generations,
the Beis Halevy and the Grach, the Ksav Sofer and HaGaon R'
Eliyahu Chaim Maizels, zt"l." HaRav Simchah Zissel
Broide also joined the chorus of accolades. Now the
publishers are hard at work on his chiddushim on
Seder Kedoshim."

HaRav Yaakov Kamenetsky referred to HaRav Hildesheimer as
"the captain of German Jewry . . . A great scholar and one of
the leaders of the struggle for chareidi Jewry." This captain
had to navigate German Jewry across turbulent waters as the
waves of Reform crashed against the sides of the ship,
threatening to sink it."

*

Today, Jewish Berlin has a very different look. Most of its
Jews were not born in Germany, but are refugees from
Communism who were shed from the tree of Judaism by the years
of separation from their heritage. Today, there is no real
war in Berlin. Quiet now reigns there, the terrible silence
in the aftermath of the storms that battered the land. The
only light is the light of Torah glimmering at the end of the
tunnel in the form of a true yeshiva, Beis Medrash DeBerlin.
Several pages have been torn off the calendar and the hands
of the clock are going around. Times have changed and with
them the needs of the hour. Now, be'ezras Hashem, the
light will shine bright and will bring them back to our
Father in Heaven. Hope and prayer.